1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an antenna integrally formed with a case and a method of manufacturing the same, and more particularly, to an antenna integrally formed with a case and a method of manufacturing the same that can prevent separation of a radiator provided with the case from the case and stably maintain electrical connection therebetween to increase product reliability.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, an antenna receives radio waves coming from the outside and transmits a signal transmitted from another device to the outside.
With the rapid development of wireless communication, wireless communication terminals, such as cellular phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs), have recently come into widespread use. Size reduction of the terminals has also proceeded rapidly. Further, a large number of portable electronic devices including laptop computers and other portable electronic devices having a wireless LAN connection have a wireless communication function.
Therefore, antennas used in the electronic devices have been reduced in size. In particular, an internal antenna that is provided within a device has been widely used.
Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 10-2006-0065323 (published on Jun. 14, 2006) discloses an internal antenna that can reduce the size of a terminal and improve productivity by integrally inserting a radiator into one side wall of a case having a predetermined receiving space.
The internal antenna is connected to upper ends of contact pins. Each of the contact pins is disposed in a contact pin receiving member that is provided on a board. The contact pin receiving member has therein a spring member that elastically supports the contact pin upward so as to maintain contact between the upper end of the contact pin and the radiator.
In this way, the antenna is electrically connected to the board through the contact pin.
However, an elastic force is intensively applied to terminal units of the internal antenna that make contact with the contact pins provided on the substrate. Therefore, the radiator integrally provided with the case may be separated from the surface of the case or the board and the radiator electrically connected to each other may be short-circuited due to damage to the spring member, which may cause product failures.